Lamarre-Condon tells murder trial pseudonym sim card was for police bullying allegations
The former officer told a Sydney jury he obtained the sim card to contact officers and prepare to approach the media about alleged bullying in the police force.
By Andrew Kovalenko ·
Beau Lamarre-Condon has told his double murder trial in Sydney that a sim card he purchased using a false name was intended to help him gather allegations of police bullying for the media. He denied that obtaining the card about a month before the alleged killings had anything to do with Jesse Baird.
The former police officer is accused of using his police service weapon to fatally shoot Baird and Baird’s new partner, Luke Davies, at Baird’s home in Paddington, Sydney, on 19 February 2024. Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to two murder charges and a charge of aggravated break and enter.
Giving evidence for a seventh day, Lamarre-Condon was questioned about buying the sim card on 15 January 2024 under the name “Bob Ballard”. He told the New South Wales supreme court on Friday that he wanted to collect statements concerning alleged bullying by a particular sergeant, but feared repercussions if he spoke publicly.
Lamarre-Condon said he intended to take the statements to the media and did not want to use his own phone for those communications. He told the jury he was concerned that speaking out could make him a target. Under cross-examination by crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC, he agreed that he had used the new sim card to contact serving and former police officers.
Hatfield asked why the phone records showed contact with only one police officer through that sim card. Lamarre-Condon replied that the records covered ordinary phone calls rather than his activity on the encrypted messaging app Signal. “You can’t see what I did on Signal,” he told the court.
The prosecutor suggested that Signal could have been used on Lamarre-Condon’s regular phone. Lamarre-Condon said he believed police could require him to unlock that device and inspect his Signal records if he were investigated for communicating with the media.
Hatfield also questioned Lamarre-Condon about having Davies’s contact details on his phone. Lamarre-Condon said those details were on Davies’s Instagram. Referring to the shootings, he said he subsequently blocked numerous Instagram accounts, including accounts belonging to members of Baird’s family.
Lamarre-Condon deactivated his social media accounts soon afterwards. The trial is continuing before Justice Natalie Adams.
